This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

In order to maintain the prevailing theme of simplicity, let’s cut to the chase on Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s proposed “Million Jobs Act”: it’s campaign sloganeering, at best.

With the expectation of a spring election, the provincial Tories have released a vague five-point plan they claim will revitalize Ontario after five years of high unemployment, including December’s worrisome loss of 39,000 positions.

Other than the catchy “Million Jobs” motto, Hudak’s plan is a collection of recycled ideas and dangerous policies that would kill jobs or drastically reduce wages and pensions. Ontarians must take a hard look at the Tory campaign platform of job-killing austerity cuts, dressed up as a private member’s bill.

Its five points of action will do little to promote employment – other than Queen’s Park jobs for Tory politicos if Hudak and his party win election.

This is not to suggest that Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government has excelled at job creation. Wynne has spoken with great empathy about youth unemployment, precarious workers and minimum wage increases, but there’s precious little to show for it.

Article Continued Below

Indeed, as the Star’s Richard Brennan reports, Statistics Canada’s numbers show that employment fell by 39,000 in December, pushing the unemployment rate up by 0.7 percentage points to 7.9 per cent, leaving some 588,500 Ontarians out of work last month. For Wynne, who has done her own branding by proclaiming herself the “Jobs Premier,” those numbers were bad news.

Now that Hudak is taking advantage of Wynne’s messaging misfortune, his five-point plan deserves scrutiny, although the details are scanty.

That old nugget, debt and tax reduction, is promised again. Hudak doesn’t mention his earlier plan to throw thousands of public servants out of work, which is a curious way to promote economic growth. In any case, the Liberals are on track to eliminate the province’s $11.9-billion deficit by 2017-18, although many economists believe that spending cuts, even at the Liberals’ slower rate, will harm job creation. As well, corporations have already benefitted from tax cuts that were supposed to loosen up “dead money” for job creation but didn’t succeed. It’s hard to suggest they deserve more.

Promoting careers in skilled trades is already a mantra of the Liberals, although Hudak promises to abolish the new College of Trades, calling it a tax on workers. In any case, both the Tories and Liberals should note economist Don Drummond’s assertion that there is zero real evidence of a skills shortage in Canada.

Hudak wants to increase inter-provincial trade, which is a fine idea, Indeed, the Liberals recently opened a trade-boosting office in Calgary. Continued efforts, from all political parties, are worthy.

Regulations on businesses would be reduced by one-third by the Tories, although Hudak is vague about the loss of protections. In any case, the Liberals are already under fire for dismantling rules in the Endangered Species Act.

And finally, Hudak’s promise to kill subsidies to the Liberals’ expensive green energy plan to lessen manufacturers’ electricity cost might appeal to some businesses, but it will also kill green jobs. That’s a zero-sum game.

Indeed, a curious omission from this public relations campaign is Hudak’s earlier promise to rid Ontario of its “outdated” labour laws. He has said he wants to strip power from unions, leading to lower wages and benefits that would hurt families across the province. Ontario already has a preponderance of precarious workers, who barely survive on the minimum wage of $10.25 an hour. There’s no need to increase the suffering.

Hudak likely hopes that his latest sloganeering will have the same impact as the simplest of messages, the “gravy train” mantra from Toronto’s 2010 mayoral campaign – and look where that led.

Voters weary of cheap sales pitches will rightly look askance at the Million Jobs Act. Ontarians need work, not fantasies.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com